One of the perks about arriving so early was that the people who made life hell for him were often late, or turned up just as class was beginning, meaning he could sit on the school steps and read, as the teachers, janitor, then school rector arrived in their expensive cars. An older boy might have thought twice about the fact the janitor was driving a car not dissimilar to the rector's, but he was intent on his book, dreading the day ahead in the back of his mind, checking his watch more and more often as 9am approached.

For the past few weeks, a group of boys had started paying him more attention than usual. They were the type who snuck chocolate bars out of the corner shop and sold them to younger kids for half the price. The kind who smoked the occasional cigarette at lunch, not because they enjoyed it, more often than not they ended up coughing uncontrollably after a few drags, but to look cool and older to their 'friends' and the younger kids in the playground. It had started with comments in class, snide looks in the corridors and shoulder nudges in the canteen. This he could deal with. This was normal. When their attention progressed to following him home, just more than a stones throw away, then standing outside his bedroom window for and hour or so he became really quite worried.

As the bell rang, he came out of the trance his book had over him and was startled to see the playground was half full, kids standing in groups, some playing football. The gang who had taken to following him were walking towards him. The tallest, obviously the leader, called to him.

“We wanna speak to you, at lunch!” he called.

The boy just looked at the leader of the gang passively, as his heart pounded in his chest and he could hear banging drums in his ears.

The leader of the gang sensed a challenge and furrowed his eyebrows, before breaking eye contact and looking down. He walked past the boy with fierce concentration, shouldering him for good measure. The boy turned and followed the gang into the building, then took a seat in his first class. He knew it was going to be a long three hours.